fashion Archive

A few weeks ago a friend who came over for dinner offered me a book about Fashion in the 1950s. When I flipped through the book, I was surpised how much the color Red was present at this period of time in all apsects of life. Not only were quite a few clothing items red, but there were red radios, gramophones, kitchen appliances and school acesssories. The 1950s were the post-war years. Quite naturally, women wanted to forget the austerity of the previous years – wear more feminine and elegant clothes and use more fun and flashy objects at home. So, the 1950s introduced quite a few amazing new inventions for the home, some of which still look modern today, while others seem rather incredible now. For example: a ‘new’ Red Heater model. Elegant and small, for the first time this Heater: – allowed the regulation of the room’s tempreparture; – could be easily moved around; – fit into just about any interior. I could easily see it being reproduced today, becoming a pretty and practical décor object in a contemporary apartement. Other inventions of the 1950s looked quite mind-boggling, like this furniture with a sink. It had a sink on the left side, a drawer with a mirror on the right side and more drawers under the sink. This bright Red piece of furniture could be placed in a bathroom or a bedroom. To me such furniture indicated that in the 1950s women still went out a lot […]

Fashion occupied a curious place in the Soviet Union from the Revolution of 1917 and until the perestroika in 1995. From the Communist Party’s point of view, fashion did not exist. There were things much more urgent and important for a real communist worker than the length of skirts and shape of shoes. As a result, the textile industry had lagged behind and there was not much clothing to choose from in the shops. Russian women often made their own clothes and had to be contented with dress-making manuals. The first Soviet catwalks appeared in Russia after the death of Stalin in 1953. They exhibited clothes produced by the only Modelling house in the Soviet Union, the All-Union Fashion House. As modelling schools did not exist, models were invited to catwalks by friends who knew someone in the industry. Many of these women, often in their 20s or 30s, had completed higher education. They were architects, painters, artists, engineers. Not only they were labelled as “workers” on their CV, but the highly stereotyped Soviet society looked down on their work. The job was not prestigious. In the mind of the general public it was equal to prostitution. The average model’s salary was 76 roubles per month, 20 roubles below average. The Brezhnev policy of the 1960s brought about a few changes. The country remained closed but some Russian sportsmen, artists and scientists could now go abroad and represent Russia. Fashion also became an important ideological tool. Models started to participate […]